Unmarried Women: The New Soccer Moms?

Just moments after the New Hampshire primary race was called Tuesday night for Hillary Clinton, one of her top strategists told me that one demographic group made the difference: unmarried women. Single, separated, divorced and widowed women have always leaned Democratic–that is, when they vote. But they historically have been a particularly difficult group to get ot the polls.

In Iowa, they had voted heavily in favor of Barack Obama, who won 40% of their vote, compared with 27% for Clinton, which is a 13 percentage point margin. In New Hampshire, Clinton won them by a 17 percentage point margin, 50-33% over Obama. That’s a 30 percentage point swing over the course of five days.

Women’s Voices, Women Vote, an organization devoted to increasing voter participation among single women, has this analysis of what happened.